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Elizabeth Engelman

Project 2: Various Development Practices

Ideas from in-class workshops

First description of idea:

Sunscreen: I’ve recently learned a bit more about UVA vs UVB rays, and how sunscreens in the US seem to only be required to put the SPF rating on the products which is specific to blocking UVB rays. In other countries the UVA rating is put on more products, but the way that rating is captured isn’t standardized yet.

Refining the idea

Topic: Sunscreen’s ability to block UVA and UVB rays

Systems Map(s): 

  • it may be interesting to work through a feedback loop of sorts to understand how sunscreen filters even work (i.e. when the ray hits the filter it breaks down, so that is why we need to reapply sunscreen periodically)
  • map of the process of regulation/approval of different ingredients. i.e. how does the FDA approve a particular ingredient?

Stakeholders: all humans, companies that make the sunscreen, governments that potentially regulate sunscreen, environmentalists (chemical filters are detrimental to the environment), dermatologists

Critical Analysis: There are a few critical view points that have come up with some really preliminary research, and I’m not sure which is the best to focus on yet:

  • some filters used in sunscreens are very good at blocking rays, but bad for the environment, and/or could be bad for humans in other ways (hormone disruptors, etc). Some people think that the potential health risks of these ingredients is worth the risk because we know that UVA and UVB rays are harmful. Is it worth the risk to the environment too?
  • There is a convenience/cosmetic component to this: mineral filters (non-chemical) aren’t bad for the environment or humans (I think), but they are more annoying to apply, create a white cast on the skin which people do not want, may not have the staying power of chemical blockers, etc.

Sunscreen: Reflection

Research and Perception

I began the my research into sunscreen with the anticipation that it would help clear up some of my uncertainties about how sunscreen works, and that I would continue to be very pro-sunscreen. I even hoped that I could create a compelling argument to convince the people in my life who don’t wear sunscreen to reconsider. I was surprised to find out that sunscreen isn’t so cut-and-dry as a topic. The systems that sunscreen effect are far more varied than I had realized. They include:

  • The physics of how UV rays break down and damage cells, from human skin to the sunscreen blockers themselves.
  • The efficacy of the chemical blockers that are used in sunscreens and their potential negative health and environmental impacts.
  • The efficacy of the physical blockers that are used in sunscreens, and the fact that they are potentially uncomfortable and leave a white-cast on the wearer’s skin. This white-cast has different implications depending on skin color.
  • How different governments and/or regulating bodies handle research, ratings, marketing, etc.
  • How people of varying skin tones are included or excluded in sunscreen research. And what products are created and widely available for people of color.
  • Why people wear sunscreen in different cultures, and how those reasons could be tied to colonialism, which is a varied and complex system itself.

My investigation helped me to realize how much I had centered myself and my experiences when I first started to explore this topic. It was enlightening to realize how something as seemingly simple as sunscreen could be viewed at with such bias. As a white person who has had issues with skin damage, sun screen has always felt like a must. I considered the potential health risks due to the chemicals in the sunscreen as secondary and less dangerous than the high risk (for me) of getting skin cancer. And with that mindset, I went into the investigation with a lens of morality – seeing as those that wear sunscreen as “better” or “more responsible” to some extent.

After interviewing my boyfriend, who doesn’t need to wear sunscreen like I do, I started to see how my point of view was very self-centered. I am trying to come at this realization without much self-judgement, because it makes sense to understand the world through the lens of our own experiences. But I think it’s also essential to do work to understand experiences of others as well. A couple of questions that came that made me rethink my previous point of view were:

  • For people who don’t have a high risk for skin cancer – is it worth the risk of using chemical sunscreen, when we don’t fully know how some of the chemicals effect humans?
  • Is there any element of classism related to sunscreen use?

This is when I came to the realization that colonialism is really at the heart of a lot of what I know about sunscreen:

  • Historically: Like I mentioned in my presentation, wikipedia says that an Australian chemist, H.A. Milton Blake, invented sunscreen in 1932, yet contradictorily the article then later goes on to describe how sun protection has been used by civilizations for thousands of year.
  • Clinical research: People of color are missing from a lot of sunscreen efficacy research. In addition, there are also scientists that are questioning how dangerous UV rays are to people who have more melanin in their skin – since there is little to no research about this topic, it’s hard to understand how dermatologists can recommend people of color to put potentially harmful chemicals on their skin so readily without more information.
  • Product development: Sunscreens on the market specifically developed for people of color are relatively new.
  • Product usage: I found several accounts of people who’s primary use of sunscreen is to keep their skin from getting darker, rather than being specifically worried about skin damage. The main motivation for sunscreen use was to keep skin lighter, presumably a product of white-focused beauty standards.

Form and Process

In terms of the forms that I considered, I had initially wanted to do some sort of performance of myself putting on increasingly absurd amounts of sunscreen. But as I started to aim my investigation more toward colonialism, it felt inappropriate to focus on my own skin in this instance. I opted to go for a virtual reality sort of experience instead, because not only did that feel a bit more appropriate but it was also more interactive. I chose to represent the different sunscreens as purple and green, to kind of get the user out of their normal skin color, and see how the experience felt. To further add to the experience, to bring the user to the beach, I added a beach video as the background, background audio, and subtly changed the brightness of the page to elicit different feelings, or to make the user feel like the sun was becoming brighter.

During my process, I really enjoyed the combination of making, researching and exploring during the daily practice. Since I again chose a topic that felt like it had some science to understand before I moved forward (though I’m not sure if that was necessarily true), I did feel myself getting stuck on completely understanding the research before beginning to brainstorm a critical lens. Creation helped with this, and allowed for me to get out of my analytical brain some, so that I could more creatively look at my topic. This daily practice is a tool that I would like to try again for future projects.

Another note about the process that I feel is worth noting is that during this project, I often worked in figma while documenting my research. I felt it gave me a central place to store my resource links, while also being able to pull out quotes and personal thoughts/ideas, and then physically group things together by theme. Once I came to this technique, I realized that it really works for my brain, and was a great way to organize the chaos!

Future Plans

In the future, I think that I’d like to try this technique of capturing the organized chaos in my brain again. But perhaps it would be helpful to limit the resources that I consult at first, so that I’m able to start creating even if it’s with limited knowledge. I again found that research was easier for me to fall into, and experimentation felt a bit more uncomfortable.

I really want my projects to be well researched, and to consider different points of views. However, I’m realizing now, that by having a wide view of a topic, it has felt more difficult to find a critical point of view since I begin to feel more empathy and understanding to differing view points. I think that this could be incredible useful and powerful, but is also a bit of a challenge to overcome as well.

Publics and Counterpublics

Analyze an existing artwork/project/piece of media (TV show, game, etc) and the systems within which it operates. Try to identify: Who created it? For whom? With what materials and metaphors? With what intention? What impact? On whom? How? Did the artist identify a public or create a counterpublic?

Project: Solitary Gardens

  • https://creative-capital.org/projects/the-prisoners-apothecary
  • https://solitarygardens.org

Solitary Gardens is a project lead by jackie sumell in collaboration with incarcerated people in solitary confinement, and host organizations. sumell works with the hosts, and matches them with a person who is in solitary confinement – the video linked above briefly follows a student group at Xavier University and an incarcerated man named Dennis. The Xavier students and sumell work to build a garden plot that is about the size and blueprint of a solitary confinement cell. They correspond with Dennis to bring his garden vision to life in the garden bed, and work to maintain the plants through two growing seasons.

The garden bed itself incorporates byproducts of several plants (sugarcane, cotton, tobacco and indigo) in the concrete mixture that were often grown and harvested by enslaved people in the United States to “illustrate the evolution of chattel slavery into mass incarceration”, and sumell says.

This project came out of a previous project that sumell worked on called Herman’s House where she and Herman Wallace who was also incarcerated and in solitary confinement collaborated to design a dream home for Wallace if he were ever freed. He was released from prison, but died shortly after. One of the first things that Wallace identified that he wanted in his dream house was gardens. A big part of this project feels like it is for Wallace and to honor his memory.

In a similar vein, this project is for the gardeners, so they can tell their stories and get to create a garden through their volunteer proxies.

This project is for the volunteer and hosts to connect with and learn the stories of their gardeners, to learn more about solitary confinement, and to understand as summell mentions in the video, “the evolution of chattel slavery into mass incarceration”.

This project is also for any public who views the gardens themselves, which are designed to look like solitary prison cells, and for anyone who views the video. I believe that the intention is for these publics to also gain a better understanding of mass incarceration, solitary confinement and to get to know the humans that are subjected to solitary confinement.

I am having trouble finding the exact words I’m looking for to describe the metaphor itself, but there is an idea of a proxy or an avatar that allows Dennis to be a gardener from inside his cell, through the hands of Xavier students. The plants are also only able to be planted where the is not concrete in the garden bed – the concrete represents the furniture and toilet in Dennis’ cell. This constraint ensure that the plants can only be placed where Dennis himself is able to walk around in the cell that he’s in. As the growing season goes on, the plants are free to rewild the cell: “proving that nature—like hope, love, and imagination—will ultimately triumph over the harm humans impose on ourselves and on the planet.”

A couple of quotes from the website and the video that stuck with me:

  • “This project directly and metaphorically asks us to imagine a landscape without prisons.”
  • “Central to this project is a call to end the inhumane conditions of solitary confinement, simultaneously inspiring compassion necessary to dismantle systems of punishment and control.”
  • “[Louisiana] incarcerates more people per capita than any other state or country on the entire planet”

Janky Prototypes

Sketch From Class:

Topic: Sunscreen

Tech: Live streaming

Prototype 1: Live-streaming sunscreen efficacy

 

Prototype 2: An At-home testing kit to see how well your sunscreen, or other substances block the sun’s UV rays

Prototype 3: Imaging the future of sunscreen

Systems Maps

I am going to focus my project on sunscreen, and am still working on figuring out a specific point of view. I have a few ideas swirling around, but haven’t yet landed on how to take a critical approach to any of them. 

  • It feels like there’s a lot of conflicting information about sunscreen in general, and more specifically the ingredients that are used to protect skin from harmful UV rays. Some information seems to suggest that certain chemical blockers could have some effect on human hormone regulation, but other research mentions that any potential risk outweigh the cost of not wearing sunscreen and the risk of getting skin cancer. Is there a way to zero in on one conflict and dig into that?
  • I have noticed a general belief that if you don’t burn, you don’t need for sunscreen as much as those that burn easily. On one hand, it seems like this is not true, because UVA rays don’t necessarily burn the skin but still cause damage.  On the other hand, there is research that suggests getting sunburnt increases your risk of skin cancer. I wonder why certain people wear sun screen, and others don’t. For me it’s always been a given that it is necessary. 
  • Companies that make sunscreen are companies, and are profit driven. I wonder if there are any systems at play here below the surface. Do companies make sunscreen only last 80 minutes so that users need to reapply more frequently? Or is this truly a limitation of the science and formula development?
  • Some ingredients in sunscreen are detrimental to the environment.
  • Different countries use different systems for determining a sunscreen’s efficacy in blocking UVA rays. In the US it’s determined with the Critical Wavelength, and if it meets this criteria, it is deemed “broad spectrum. In Europe, it’s required to meet a Critical Wavelength, and additional criteria as well. In Japan and Korea, the PA+ rating system is used ( I still need to do some more research to understand how this is determined).

The first map is asking the question of who are the stakeholders of sunscreen? What are different stakeholders looking for in a sunscreen? There are a few more ideas in this figma, but the two main stakeholders I explored were humans that use sunscreen and companies that make it.

https://www.figma.com/file/aW3xVAs1fapX0GyrIgrUc0/system-diagram-1?node-id=0%3A1

 

The other map was vaguely trying to answer why some uses sunscreen and others don’t.


https://www.figma.com/file/RaIUL76a0gdlBlyKBwmv3H/system-diagram?node-id=0%3A1

Ideas, Arrangements, Effects

At some point this week, look around you and produce a drawing (or take a picture) of a space that you feel is rich in arrangements. In a style similar to the diagram on page 33, annotate your picture or drawing with the “hard” and “soft” arrangements you can identify.

 

Map an aspect of your topic to the Ideas/Arrangements/Effects framework. For instance, if you were working with zoos: an idea is that animals should be able to be observed at will by humans; an arrangement is a cage at the zoo; an effect is that animals often become distressed. Since arrangements are “a rich and frequently overlooked terrain for creating change” (32): can you identify a way you could change your identified arrangement, and how that might reflect a different idea, or have a different effect?

I-A-E1:

Idea: Getting a sun burn causes skin damage (and potentially skin cancer)

Arrangement: Sunscreen is just used to prevent humans from getting burned, and there is a belief that people that don’t burn don’t need to wear sunscreen

Effect: People who tan, or have more melanin in their skin can have their skin damaged by the sun’s UV rays. Also, UVA rays specifically don’t cause skin to burn, though are equally if not more damaging to the skin and can cause aging, and cancer.

Updated arrangement: There is a universal understanding that sunscreen is necessary for everyone to lower the risk skin damage and skin cancer. Hopefully the effect of this could be that there is less incidents of skin cancer.

I-A-E2:

Idea: Sunscreens on the market are created with the best intentions, to protect consumer.

Arrangement: Cosmetic companies develop, and the FDA approves ingredients to block UV rays more efficiently.

Effect: Some sunscreens contain ingredients that are detrimental to the environment (coral reefs specifically), and potentially to humans

Updated arrangement: Cosmetic companies develop, and the FDA approves ingredients that are not only effective at protecting humans from UV rays, but also ensure that they are safe for humans, and safe for the environment. If this doesn’t happen with all companies, perhaps it would expose organizations that aren’t taking these precautions.

Daily Practice – Day 6 (2022-10-24)

Updating this post to add a bit more context. This graph is based on one from Critical Wavelength and Broad-Spectrum UV Protection by Dr. Dembny. Critical Wavelength (CW) is a standard used by the United States FDA to determine if a sunscreen can be deemed “broad-spectrum”.  Wavelengths ranges correspond to different types of UV waves: wavelengths 280 nm – 320 are UVB, 320 nm – 400 are UVA. Broad-spectrum sunscreen aims to protect against UVA and UVB rays. The CW is calculated by looking at how much UV is absorbed by the sunscreen at different wavelengths. The CW is calculated by figuring out the area under the full curve, and then determining how far to the right on the x-axis you can go to account for 90% of the area under the curve. This point on the x-axis is the CW. If that CW is greater than or equal to 370, the sunscreen is broad-spectrum, and provides sufficient coverage from both UVA and UVB rays.

Here is the figma doc where I threw some notes and links to the resources I looked at: https://www.figma.com/file/Ws8WkXzwuJcjSXYfbOQ4hE/Daily-Pracitce–Day-6?node-id=0%3A1